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"Fed up" landowners have said "enough" to feeble efforts by
Congress to "fix" the Endangered Species Act (ESA). That's why a coalition of
property rights groups, led by the American Land Foundation, Stewards of the
Range, the American Policy Center, Liberty Matters, and the PFUSA Grange have
now gathered more than 6,300 signatures to a letter calling for repeal of the
ESA.
The letter is being delivered to Senator James Inhofe (R-OK),
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. His committee
will soon consider legislation to "update" and "improve" the ESA.
The
House has already passed the Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act
(TESRA). The Senate is considering a bill sponsored by Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID)
called the Collaboration and Recovery of Endangered Species Act (CRESA). While
the House version makes at least a weak attempt to compensate landowners when
the ESA is invoked, the Senate version offers nothing for them. Both bills
confirm the worst fears of landowners about how serious Congress is to actually
addressing the real problems of the ESA.
The coalition opposes those
legislative efforts to "fix" the ESA and, instead is calling for outright repeal
of the existing law, saying there can be no fix of the worst legislation ever
produced by Congress.
Since its enactment in 1973, the ESA has penalized
landowners unlucky enough to have an endangered species on their land. Farmers,
ranchers, tree farmers, homeowners and others who harbor endangered species or
habitat on their property are subjected to severe land-use restrictions that can
lead to economic ruin.
"Rather than a solution to helping endangered
species, the ESA has become a very powerful tool, used by radical
environmentalists who want to stop literally any use of certain lands for any
purpose," said Dan Byfield, president of the American Land Foundation of Taylor,
Texas. "The entire community of Klamath Falls, Oregon was literally chocked to
death as its water supply was shut off to protect a sucker fish that isn't
endangered," said Byfield.
Yet, as Coalition leaders point out, all of
the pain caused by the ESA to landowners is really for nothing as far as
endangered species are concerned. "In the 33 years since the ESA has been on the
books, just 34 of the nearly 1,300 U.S. species listed have made their way off
of the endangered list," said Margaret Hage Byfield, executive Director of
Stewards of the Range based in Idaho. "Of this number," she continued, "9
species are now extinct, 14 appear to have been improperly listed in the first
place, and just 9 (.6% of all species listed) have recovered." Concluded Hage,
"that's a 99% failure rate that proves the ESA is nothing more than a powerful
tool for special interests groups to promote their political
agenda."
These are the reasons why the coalition is calling for outright
repeal of the ESA. "There is only one valid answer to this outrageous
situation," said Tom DeWeese, president of the American Policy Center,
Warrenton, VA. "Repeal the ESA and, if necessary, start over."
To that
end, the coalition has generated more than 6,300 signatures for the letter to
Senator Inhofe to demand repeal of the ESA . These signatures aren't from
members of rich and powerful lobbying groups. They are from the landowners,
business owners, and community leaders who are suffering from the ESA.
In part, the letter says, "Congress needs to revisit the wisdom of the
Founding Fathers who believed the ownership of property must be secured from
government intervention for liberty to exist. Take that security away through
environmental laws like the ESA, and not only is liberty not secure, it no
longer exists. You have only to look at the past 30 years since the enactment of
the ESA to see what it has produced - the dramatic destruction of property
rights and the failure to recover species." "Landowners need heroes to
stand for us and protect our private property. It's time to listen to us for a
change," said Byfield, appealing to the Congress to take a stand for property
owners.
"In this day when Americans have come to understand the horrors
of widespread government abuse of eminent domain, such as in the Supreme Court's
Kelo decision, we should rightly fear the creation of a new ESA that could best
be called Kelo 2," concluded DeWeese.
The coalition maintains a website
at www.repealesa.us where the full letter
may be viewed and signed.
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